Hungering Darkness
"I attack the Darkness" Playstyle The Spirit that has formed a contract with Lynch is a patient controller who uses manipulates the enemy to obey it, using their own weapons against their allies, as well as a tank - able to endure incredible amounts of non-magical damage and recover quickly from it. Tactics Be Patient The Darkness benefits a lot by activating after its Illuminated (and its Beckoners if its a declared Neverborn Henchman, or working with Jacob Lynch) has afflicted the enemy with Brilliance. The pros include: * It heals wounds equal to the number of nearby targets afflicted with Brilliance with its (0), and causes them to make a Horror check. * It can make a Brilliance affliction permanent via the trigger on Heed My Call. * It gains increased accuracy and higher chances of dealing damage with its Tendrils when attacking a Brilliance target. Brilliant Healing The Darkness is easily hit with its low Df (though has a VERY high Wp), but being Incorporeal it can take a decent beating from physical attacks. It also has two means to heal itself: * As mentioned above, it heals wounds equal to the number of nearby Brilliance afflicted targets with its (0) * Its Tendrils automatically heal 2 Wds if it damages a target Through this, the Darkness becomes a semi-decent tank. Timing is crucial though. Act too early/ healthy, you will be unable to heal any further damage taken that turn. Delay activating/ healing too long, you risk being killed before you activate and recover from your injuries. Intelligently, if you aren't in a Lynch crew with The Rising Sun upgrade, look to activate the Darkness once its Health hits 4 or less. Dark Debt As your crew spreads Brilliance, Heed My Voice will be the Darkness' typical main action against enemy models. Not only does it have an increased chance of success on a Brilliance afflicted target, and allows you to make it perform a (1) action for you (usually have it move away from your forces or attack its former allies), but a Mask flip will make the affliction PERMANENT - giving crew a game-long buff (unless the target has a means to remove the condition). This Mask requirement makes the Darkness work well with Mr Tannen (who can increase the value of Mask cards) and Jacob Lynch (whose Pay Up allows you to draw a decent number of Masks). It should also be noted that Dark Dept can be used to assigning one of the Darkness's AP to an ally on a successful cast. Time to Feed Once the enemy crew is drenched in Brilliance, the Darkness typically swaps from being a controller to a damage dealer. Its Tendrils are incredibly savage against Brilliance afflicted enemies - giving it an extra card on its attack AND damage flips. Should it get a ram on the attack flip, it will deal serious injury to its victim - usually killing minions outright and doing impressive injury to even the hardiest of Enforcers. If you want to do serious damage, take the upgrade Addict it will let you flip three cards on your attack flip, and give a double positive flip on your damage flips against Brilliance afflicted targets. Builds Lynch Upgrades Jacob Lynch has two limited upgrades which do nothing for him, but instead empower the Darkness. Both encourage the Darkness to charge the enemy crew head-on, though equall increase the priority of removing Lynch (but thats the trade-off): * The Rising Sun turns the Darkness into a true tank who will use its Tendrils for damage dealing (never healing). If slain, simply have Lynch execute a Brilliance afflicted enemy to respawn it at full health. A great choice when fighting magic-damage-dealing crews. * Endless Hunger makes the Darkness a DPS by letting it use Tendrils or Head My Voice an additional time per activation. Its terrifying also increases to affect everything (not just living) though its a minor defense at best - making it a great choice against weak willed crews. Synergy Despite being a Henchman, unless it leads a crew itself, the Darkness can only be hired by Jacob Lynch (it is his totem). Fortunately it comes for free in a Lynch crew - its cost being made up by Lynch's expensive upgrades - giving him a powerful bodyguard. It gains significant benefit working with models that cause Brilliance. Candidates who do this include: * Beckoners can cause Brilliance to targets at range spell, and prevents nearby afflicted making interact actions or removing the condition. * The Depleted; cheap, tough, tar pits whose death afflicts Brilliance to any surrounding target. * The Illuminated can cast a damaging cloud of Brilliance, and are deadly executioners against afflicted targets. How to Counter The Darkness can heal fast, but can only do so once per turn. It may have some immunity to Physical Attacks, but magic that target's its Df will hurt it - as will multiple small Wd attacks. Encourage it to act and heal early with a few powerful magical hits, then keep the pressure on with a swarm of minor strikes. Should the Darkness be in Lynch's crew, make note of what upgrade he has. If equipped with The Rising Sun, set your priority to Lynch instead of the Darkness. So long as Lynch lives, the Darkness can easily come back. Take him out, and the survival of the Darkness will drop.